LTE, which is the 4G broadband technology that Verizon (and others) have decided to hitch their 4G stars to, has been talked about as becoming available in the USA sometime around 2012, but industry experts are now speculating that it will be more like 2015 when it finally rolls out on a major scale.
Here is what wireless consultant Andrew Seybold had to say about the matter at his conference (which is being held in conjunction with the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment conference in San Francisco):
- There is no huge rush on the part of the carriers to provide 4G services
- LTE likely wont become available until 2015
- LTE download speeds of 71-143 Mbps are entirely theoretical and will be considerably slower when they are applied to the real world.
- Handset and chip-makers are pushing to get LTE out there, not carriers